The building pictured on the right is part of a gateway project to improve the east end of Glasgow ready for the Commonwealth Games that are being staged there in 2014. Called the Eastgate Project, it is clad in 1,200m² of red sandstone supplied by Stancliffe from its quarry near St Bees Head on the Cumbrian Coast, but the stone reached the building via America and the factory of Stone Panels Inc, where it was fixed to an aluminium honeycomb backing.

With the sandstone reduced to 7mm thick (it can be even thinner when a denser stone such as granite is used on the panels), the StoneLite panels have a weight of just 16kg/m².

The light weight was a major factor in the decision by Simon Walsh of Cooper Cromar Architects in Glasgow to specify StoneLite, which is sold in the UK by Brick-Works UK in Newark, Nottinghamshire.

It was a decision made easier because Cooper Cromar had already used StoneLite on two previous projects in Glasgow. Simon Walsh thinks it is an elegant solution to cladding – it speeds up installation time and can be installed from a scissor lift (as it was on the Eastgate Project) without the need for scaffolding, takes the stone off the critical path, means the stone is not part of making the building air tight and, because it is so light, makes it easy for him to fulfil his health & safety obligations under CDM.

“The absolute beauty of the Stone Panels system is that it’s a one stop shop,” he says.

He says that although the panels are slightly more expensive per square metre than hand-set stone, the price is more than compensated for by the speed of erection and, if the lighter weight is considered at the design stage, the savings on materials for the frame of the building can be considerable compared with hand set stone, which would typically be 40-75mm thick. And the panels can be fixed by semi-skilled cladders who do not cost as much as masons.

Another attraction for Simon Walsh from a design point of view was that the panels could be as large as 1.5m x 900mm, whereas he doubts he would have got stones half that size if they were hand set.

Simon says the main contractor, Dawn Construction, was a little concerned about the length of time involved in sending the stone to America and getting it back again, but the architect says: “You can bring the panels on to the project at any time, unlike hand setting, which is on the critical path at an early stage.”

Even the BREEAM rating of the building was scarcely affected by sending the stone all the way to America and back because relatively little stone had to be shipped when it was only being used as 7mm thick veneer.

Simon says: “I would definitely use it again – speed, health & safety, air tight, modular, larger panels so you can do more with design… I don’t think there’s much choice.”

David Turner at Clad UK Ltd, the company that fixed the StoneLite, is also a fan. Clad UK was sub-contracted to the glazing sub-contractor, Solar Glass (now called Glass Solutions), because of the interface between the glass and the stone, with the stone being hung on the building at some points and on to the curtain walling at others.

Clad UK installed the Kingspan steel frame system that the StoneLite panels are secured back to, so they had made sure it was accurate. There is Kooltherm K15 rainscreen insulation behind the panels and the walls achieve a U-value of 0.23W/m²K.

The panels are fixed with 5-6mm joints that have been left open as a rainscreen. David say that the design incorporates some quite complex five sided corners that lent themselves to the StoneLite system, where all the solutions are worked out beforehand and the completed panels, fabricated into the sizes and shapes needed, are simply fixed to the backing. Clad UK worked with the architect to design the detail of the individual cladding elements.

On the Eastgate Project the savings on the frame were not great because the heavyweight floor plates still needed to be supported, but David says he worked on a project last year where the use of StoneLite meant a saving of 300tonnes of steel in the main frame.

He says: “We’re pricing quite of lot of this type of work at the moment and are talking about using StoneLite agin. I’m a fan of it. It’s light and fast to build with.”

For more information about Stone Panels' Stonelight in the UK, Ireland and throughout Europe, call Paul Griffiths on +44 1636 612414 or +44 7739 295 180. You can also use the email address below to contact Paul or visit the website at the address below.